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Even today, ringing in her 63rd birthday sporting a swirl of cotton-candy pink hair, Cyndi Lauper remains a singular stylistic force. The squeaky-voiced girl from Queens, who rose to fame with a slew of hits as a solo artist after splitting from her early group Blue Angel, still seems to embody the word kooky. She danced her way into the hearts of the masses in the now-legendary 1983 video for “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” doffing a porkpie hat and sporting a spangly pink prom dress topped with stacks of studded belts. A thrift store queen beamed into the living rooms of the MTV generation, she courted controversy from pearl-clutchers the world over with “She Bop,” her ode to female masturbation.

Today, in the age of Alessandro Michele maximalism, Lauper’s brand of more-is-more exuberance feels timelier than ever—and not just thanks to fashion’s newfound yen for the formerly reviled 1980s (most recently, Marc Jacobs’s ode to MTV). That’s her sporting a satin souvenir bomber, of the stripe now so ubiquitous both on the runways and IRL, with a shock of Aqua Net-ed, firetruck red hair in the “Time After Time” vid. A sort of New Wave Betty Boop, Lauper seamlessly melded outmoded vintage with glam; the same Hawaiian shirts she teamed with her bustiers and pounds of pins and bangles would be right at home on girls (and guys) sprinting between shows this week in Milan and Paris. Perhaps chiefly, she embodies the deliciously unserious ethos of “screw it, it’s only fashion,” which has reemerged on the catwalks in recent seasons.

In honor of Lauper’s 63rd, we’re taking the chance to raise a glass to the singer, songwriter, actress, and unflagging LGBT activist. Above, six of our favorite ways to channel her style this summer.

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